Car dealerships say ‘it’s been a struggle’ to adjust as new July 1 ‘license plate law’ goes into effect in US state

A CAR dealership has opened up on the struggles they’ve faced in adjusting to a new July 1 license plate law.

From July 1, a major US state has brought in a new ruling that eliminates the use of paper tags and replaces them with permanent metal plates to help tackle fraud, toll violations and crimes associated with counterfeit paper tags.

KLTV

Dealerships express frustration with the state’s new permanent metal plate system[/caption]

KLTV

Car dealerships are facing challenges adapting to the new law requiring permanent metal plates instead of paper tags[/caption]

KLTV

While some car owners applaud the new metal plate law for reducing fraud and convenience, dealerships report struggles with inventory access[/caption]

However, according to KLTV, some dealerships are already struggling with the change in policy.

Rod Anderson, the CFO for Hall Buick GMC, told reporters: “This first plate is the new metal plate we’re going to be issuing to customers.

“This will go on the vehicle when they purchase the vehicle.”

“It’s been a struggle,” Anderson added, claiming that adjusting to the state’s new inventory system for issuing license plates has been difficult.

“We discovered that our plates were not accessible to us,” he said.

“They weren’t in the right inventory location that we had access to.”

He also says getting help from the state has been tricky.

“I made multiple calls to different people,” said Anderson.

“All of them were ‘Well, we can’t really see what you’re seeing, we don’t really know what the problem is, you need to e-mail this e-mail address.’”

He also says other dealerships are in a similar position.

“Just from talking with the state, it sounds like, you know, other dealers are having problems as well,” says Anderson.

The law, covering all of Texas, sees temporary metal tags with color-coded borders issued for specific situations, such as out-of-state purchases and test drives.

There are four types of temporary metal tags with different color borders – purple, blue, green, and red – all for specific situations such as provisional buyers, out-of-state purchases, dealer use and limited-use vehicles.

But for many, the admin work that goes along with this has proven to be problematic.

“We’ll have to go back then and then enter all that information for the cars that we’ve sold so far,” said Anderson.

Indeed, such is the extra work-load, dealerships may even be forced to hire someone just to manage it all.

But some car owners, like Dakota Moats, believe the law helps everyone in the long run with paper tag fraud.

“I think it’s pretty good because a lot of people try to copy it and try to get away with it,” he said.

Angelica Garcia, another car owner, was in agreement.

“It’s a lot more convenient for the consumer or the buyer of the vehicle, you know, it takes a lot of that having to go somewhere else,” she said.